Pskaena

Tuesday, 2 August 2016

The energy of Drako began to course through the Wizard. Eddies and currents of vast power were flowing around me.

I saw a woman with her eyes closed.

For a little while, at least. After a few uncomfortable minutes, she began moving her lips, and manipulating her fingers. Her eyes opened, but they seemed to be focused on nothing in particular as they darted around. Her forehead wrinkled, and she began to sweat.

She was no longer reacting to me, so I lowered my gun.

Suddenly there was a soft breeze. The sun seemed to beat down harder. Statically charged ions and ozone played off of sharp points in Saint Elmo's fire dances. The breeze turned to a wind, and then a gale. Jikana's eyes widened and her arms and hands spread open, each finger pointing to an area in front of her. Her moving lips were filled with a strange non-language, and she began to go pale.

Without warning, space warped. It was as if someone had poked a flexible mirror - the image of Jikana flowed around a point in space, and that point became a greenish blurry sphere, expanding from nothing to 2 meters in diameter within seconds. A soft wind flowed into and out of the spherical hole in space. I could see the warped image of greenery as if through a long mirrored tube. No matter which way I shifted, the exit seemed to remain directly in front of me.

Jikana had sworn to harm no one. I jumped into the portal.

The transition across the portal barrier was... very different. It was as if every cell in my body was being stretched and wrapped through a wringer in a way that I can't adequately describe. Then I was weightless, as if I was back on the shuttle journeying to Drako from Porta. Zero Gee. Most people found the feeling difficult to stomach. I loved it. I was flying through a tunnel.

I looked up, and my brain hurt. Not literally - there was no headache. But I couldn't quite mentally grasp the image of my foot above my head. A part of me wanted to reach out and touch it, but I don't know what I would have done if I felt myself grab my foot through... ugh.. I don't even want to think about it.

Behind me, the entrance closed and winked out of existence. Just then the exit became a sharp cone that looked like it would impale me. Forgetting Jikana's oath, I panicked and stopped myself with an on-board propellant. It was unnecessary. As I neared the exit, my extremities came closer together until I was practically standing on the sides of my own feet. That was weird. I pushed off into the nothingness that was in the direction I had came from, just in time to watch a new portal exit bloom before me.

It was all quite confusing, and I just wanted out of there, so I accelerated toward this new exit, and burst through the barrier wringer into a dark wooded area. I tumbled, my armour absorbing most of the blow, but getting damaged in the process. I planted my feet beneath me like I was taught, and sprang into an upright position, looking back the way I had come. The Portal closed before my eyes, leaving me stranded... wherever or whenever I was.

Jikana could have betrayed me, and I might have no way of retaliating. Nothing left but to find out.

I flipped through the different light frequencies, and found that most had a strong concentration in one particular direction. Magnetometers suggested it was to the West.

My name is Laquisha. I am a funeral director. As a funeral director I need to know when people die. Nobody knows this, but there is an app for that. All funeral directors have this app, but most of them ignore it and allow customers to come to them. What makes this app special, is that it releases the location that the death occurs 3 hours before it happens, and slowly releases details until the actual event.

I don't believe that this app is an innocent result of quantum science mumbo jumbo. That is why I intervene.

I live in Piscatoris. I wear a deathmask and a tux. I am the Funeral Director.

A little over 2 hours ago, the App sent an alert to my phone. A death was going to occur at a 3 story warehouse by the docks. I got dressed and took a cab to the address. On the way, the app alerted me of 5 other deaths at the same address. So far, no names or other details have come through. I searched the first floor and found nothing. I'm on my way to the elevator, gun drawn.

The indicator light is on the 3rd floor, so I call the elevator. 30 seconds later the elevator door opens, and I enter. There is a front gate and a back gate, and I don't know which side will open, so I stand on the side keeping an eye on both.

The bell dings and the elevator stops. The doors open. My mind rebels at what I'm seeing. Clear sky through a glass ceiling, and dense trees all around. Someone has built a labyrinth up here.

I exit the elevator, and check my phone.

-10 minutes until the first death.

-It is a murder.

-Knife wound to the throat.

My mask is equipped with vision technologies, so I turn on infrared enhancement.

After 9 minutes of searching along the paths, I finally see someone up ahead. A small woman is collapsed on the path, her leg covered in blood. She is weeping softly, with her hair covering her eyes. Then out of the corner of my eye, I notice a hint of red. A camouflaged man has crept up on the woman from within the foliage. He is carrying a long knife, and he is inches away from her. He is intently focused on her like a hungry animal. I zoom in on his face, and my PAI (Personal Artificial Intelligence) identifies him as an escaped serial killer.

I swing my gun up to take aim, just as he lunges for her. She laughs and twirls around, steel flashing in her hands. There is a look of surprise on his face, as his blood drips down her arms. He still has some fight in him, and he tries to take his own vengeance. However, he is too weak, and she throws him aside. She cleans her knife on his shirt and looks at me. I lower my gun, and say, "Are you alright?"

She points to her ears and shrugs, then signs something at me. I don't know sign language, but my PAI displays, "I'm sorry, I can't hear you. I'm deaf." I nod at her. I have a business card, so I take out a pen and begin writing on it, "Can I help you?". But when I look up, she's gone. I look around, and there is no sign of her. That's when my PAI pings me. I look at the news article it pulled out of Google:

"Deaf Dora Deals Double Death!

Police are confounded by yet another murder by the mysterious deaf woman. This time, she knifed two men outside of a..."

I didn't expect that. I bluetooth my phone to the mask, and check for alerts. More details have poured in from the App:

-Less than a minute to next death.

-Gunshot to chest.

-16 minutes to 3rd death.

-16 minutes to 4th death.

-17 minutes to 5th death.

Fearing the next one may be me, I look around fast. To my left! Someone is hiding in the tree. I keep them in my peripheral vision, as I review the image. There is a glint of steel in the image. I turn on my reverse cam and walk away from the stalker. The stalker creeps out of the bush and I recognize her. She is Deaf Dora. I swing around, gun pointing at her chest, and my other hand out in the universal sign for "Stop!" Fearing that the app may be right, my eyes plead with her to listen.

I miscalculated. She interprets my fear as being directed toward her, and charges me. I pull the trigger. She stops in surprise, as she looks down and drops the knife. Blood spreads outward from the center of her chest in arterial gushes. Her bloody hands take on more blood. She looks at me pleadingly, and collapses. Damn that App! I check her pulse, but there is none any more. Nothing more for me here, so I move on.

Five minutes later, I see someone else wandering the path, carrying a gun. He sees me, then my gun. I lower my gun and say, "You alright?"

He lowers his in response and says, "I don't know! I heard a gunshot. Was that you?"

"Yeah. I was attacked."

"Any idea what's going on?"

"No, not really. You?" My PAI pings me. Facial recognition has determined that this man is a serial killer named John Roscoe. He targets young boys. I'm safe.

"No. All I know is that I was lured here."

We walk and talk for a few minutes. I pretend to be a murderer, and that seems to loosen his tongue a bit more. I find out that he and his roommate received letters which were designed to lure them here. His roommate is the man that Deaf Dora killed, but I don't tell him that.

I check for updates from the App:

-Less than 1 minute to 3rd death.

-Gunshot to head

-Less than 1 minute to 4th death.

-Gunshot to head

-1 minute to 5th death.

-Gunshot to head

-7 minutes to 6th death.

Just then, we come to a clearing.

Across the clearing, I see someone moving about, and point them out to my companion. “John! Look over there! Someone across the clearing.”John sees them and says, “So there is… How did you know my name?”“You told me, remember?”

“No. I didn’t.”

I notice a red laser dot appear on the head of the man across the clearing, just as John shoves me out into the open and draws his gun.

A gunshot rings out and the man across the clearing falls to the ground amid bloodspray and brain splatter. John hesitates and looks at the action. The red laser dot swings too fast to track across the clearing and settles on John’s head. My PAI triangulates the origin and highlights it for me, zooming in on the area of an image it took earlier, where a grainy sharpshooter appears to be hiding in the top of a tree. I yell, “Duck!” too late. John’s brain erupts from the side of his head. I dash for cover, and start running to intercept the sharpshooter. I chance a look at the shooter’s location just in time to see a red dot appear on her head, and a moment later watch her die like her victims.

Again my PAI tracks the laser, this time back toward the elevator shaft. Above the elevator there is an observation tower. I look at it, and zoom in on a man descending stars. There’s no time for me to reach the elevator shaft or the stairwell, but there is only one functional exit to the building. That exit is on the North wall, and I am right by the north wall. It is 25 feet to the ground below. Not really too far to drop, but I don’t want to risk breaking my legs, so I improvise.

The human intestine is 25 feet long in total. It’s slippery as you like, and not really that strong in its fresh state, but it worked. I made it to the ground right by the entrance just as the man was darting for it. I raised my gun and shouted, “Stop!”

He responded, “How many did you kill?”

“What?!” I was confused.

“How many of them did you kill? It’s a simple question.” He stopped 10 feet from me, still inside the warehouse.

“I want to know. What is the harm in telling me? You can see that I don’t have my rifle trained on you. I saw all of them but two die. I know that they died, I had their vitals tracked. What happened to the other two?”

“First, you tell me what the bloody hell was going on here!”

“Promise to tell me afterward?”

“Fine. In fact, I’ll do one better. I’ll show you.”

“Thank you. I lured 5 serial killers here so that they would kill each other. Then you showed up. Now, show me, like you promised!”

I projected my recording of the two deaths onto the floor between us, adjusted for his viewpoint. He watched the recording play out with a look of ecstasy on his face.

“Are you recording this too?”

“Why?”

“Answer me!” He shouted.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

He pulled out a diamond coated nanotube saw (DCNS) string from his glove, and flipped a coin. While it was in the air, he said, “Heads you die, tails I die!”

“What?!”

It landed tails up.

“Fair enough,” he shrugged. He lay on the ground, and took out a mirror, positioning it carefully.

“What are you doing?” I asked

He wrapped the DCNS Garrote around his neck and tightened it rapidly, cutting through his carotid artery.

“No!” I dropped my gun, running to him and tried to stop the bleeding. I knew there was nothing I could do. I also knew I needed to leave the scene.

“Jeeves...”

My PAI responded, “Yes?”

“Scrub a copy of the recording of my identifying information, and post it to the Anonymous Police Report Forum. Prepare my apartment for quiet entry and a forensic bath. With epsom salts. And put some hot chocolate on for me.

Saturday, 16 January 2016

How do you track a wizard? No one even believes they exist, so I suppose they'd be as hard to track as Nergworm Monster. Cryptozoology is terribly unfruitful. Despite my determination to get this wizard's help, I had no idea how hard it would be to find her. Fortunately it wasn't. It turns out that when someone leaves a planet before space exploration begins, they don't expect to meet any other humans. I topped a ridge and spied Jikana picking berries in a ravine. It was perfect. I was easily able to approach her from behind without her becoming aware of my presence - which was good considering her abilities. I positioned myself at the only exit she would be expected to take, and waited until she was finished to ambush her.

She picked up her basket, and began her trek - well, the first few feet of the trek. As soon as she passed me, I stepped up behind her with the barrel of my loaded gun pressing into her back. I could see her mind racing as she panicked.

I threatened her, "Don't twitch. I know your abilities, and I will kill you rather than lose you. I need your help."

Ignoring her, I said, "He was killed by a stranger when I was a child. He and my parents were all killed by that man. I was asleep in our room, and I awoke to hushed arguments. Merty was arguing with this man when my parents came into the room, my mother carrying a bat. He grabbed the stranger's gun, who yelled something and then Merty tried to stop the stranger, but missed and hit our father instead. Then the stranger shot Mertabhai, killing him. My mother screamed and tried to stop the stranger, hitting him with the bat, but he turned and disemboweled her. Then he left like nothing had happened.

"I lost my entire family that night. I cannot let that happen. I will have them back."

Jikana said, "I can't help you."

"Listen lady, I know your powers. I've done my research."

"No, you misunderstand me. I can send you back but it won't help," she answered. I tilted my head to the side questioningly. She continued, "No matter what you do, you can't change the past - not really."

"Why not? You know what," I shook my head, "It doesn't matter. I don't want to hear you try to convince me not to do this for any reason. I don't want to hear that I'll blow up the universe, or cause a paradox that implodes everything. I don't care what your excuse is. Send me back, or I kill you. It really is that simple."

"If you will not listen to reason, then I am sorry. You'll only have one chance to get back. When the Portal opens, it will only open near you, and only be open for 30 seconds."

"I'll only take it if the deed is done."

She closed her eyes.

"What are you doing?!" I shouted.

"Shush! Creating these portals will require far more energy than you can possibly imagine."

How do you track a wizard? No one even believes they exist, so I suppose they'd be as hard to track as Nergworm Monster. Cryptozoology is terribly unfruitful. Despite my determination to get this wizard's help, I had no idea how hard it would be to find her. Fortunately it wasn't. It turns out that when someone leaves a planet before space exploration begins, they don't expect to meet any other humans. I topped a ridge and spied Jikana picking berries in a ravine. It was perfect. I was easily able to approach her from behind without her becoming aware of my presence - which was good considering her abilities. I positioned myself at the only exit she would be expected to take, and waited until she was finished to ambush her.

She picked up her basket, and began her trek - well, the first few feet of the trek. As soon as she passed me, I stepped up behind her with the barrel of my loaded gun pressing into her back. I could see her mind racing as she panicked.

I threatened her, "Don't twitch. I know your abilities, and I will kill you rather than lose you. I need your help."

Ignoring her, I said, "He was killed by a stranger when I was a child. He and my parents were all killed by that man. I was asleep in our room, and I awoke to hushed arguments. Merty was arguing with this man when my parents came into the room, my mother carrying a bat. He grabbed the stranger's gun, who yelled something and then Merty tried to stop the stranger, but missed and hit our father instead. Then the stranger shot Mertabhai, killing him. My mother screamed and tried to stop the stranger, hitting him with the bat, but he turned and disemboweled her. Then he left like nothing had happened.

"I lost my entire family that night. I cannot let that happen. I will have them back."

Jikana said, "I can't help you."

"Listen lady, I know your powers. I've done my research."

"No, you misunderstand me. I can send you back but it won't help," she answered. I tilted my head to the side questioningly. She continued, "No matter what you do, you can't change the past - not really."

"Why not? You know what," I shook my head, "It doesn't matter. I don't want to hear you try to convince me not to do this for any reason. I don't want to hear that I'll blow up the universe, or cause a paradox that implodes everything. I don't care what your excuse is. Send me back, or I kill you. It really is that simple."

"If you will not listen to reason, then I am sorry."

She closed her eyes.

"What are you doing?!" I shouted.

"Shush! Creating these portals will require far more energy than you can possibly imagine."

Wednesday, 8 July 2015

There is debate among palaeontologists about the function of the tall neural spines of the Spinosaurus. Some say that it was a sail used to regulate body temperature, others that it acted as a support structure for massive muscles along its side. Many of those who argued for the massive muscles pointed to the live specimens found in the wild and on Drako, but it had already been established that the living specimens were not related to the creatures which left behind fossils. Dragons had been observed laying eggs which later hatched into any number of living dinosaur, and though the origin of dragons was still hotly debated, it was clear from the fossil record that many if not all dinosaur species now living had been extinct for millions of years, therefore any resemblance to the extinct varieties was at best somehow reconstructed by the dragons and potentially a phenomenal coincidence. Therefore the muscular Spinosaurus below me didn't convince me that an ancient Spinosaurus actually had a thick musculature rather than a sail. However I really didn't have to concern myself with its authenticity, only with its reality.

I stopped ignoring the alert and allowed the tracker program to fill me in on what I might expect. This creature was more like a giant fish eating alligator. Spiney could violently swing his neck or tail from side to side fast enough to capture any creature that got close enough to his well camouflaged side. There was no way I would be able to sneak away without waking her, and then feeding her. I decided to simply wait until he woke up and left before I would even move. It would have worked, too, if I hadn't somehow attracted the attention of the flock of carnivorous pterosaurs circling above. It had until that moment been my belief that pterosaurs only ate fish.

I had to think quickly and come up with something. I couldn't. Mertabhai might have an idea. As if by cue, I heard the familiar comms static click and his voice, "Good morning, brother, how- uh oh."

"Yeah, 'uh oh'. Any ideas?" I whispered.

"How did you get into this deathtrap?" he asked. "Nevermind. Let me think."

He and I both remained in silent contemplation as the pterosaurs grew braver, circling lower, and I finished packing up the camp.

Mertabhai broke the silence, "I've got it..." He took a few moments and explained his plan to me.

"Merty, you're insane."

"Listen, kettle, you got any other bright ideas?"

"Nope."

I set to work as fast as I could. I took off my visor and adjusted the eyepiece to its widest setting, then seeing that it wasn't wide enough I removed a screw from between the lenses and created an oversize nose rest with a stick from the tree. I carefully lowered the makeshift dino-sized visor with 3 thin ropes like a marionette onto Spiney's sleeping face. Then I programmed my gun to shoot a numbing dart that would deaden the sense of touch without interfering with motor control, and fired into the muscles above its hind legs. Miraculously Spiney didn't wake. Finally I lowered myself onto the numbed section, and secured myself to his skin* with my gloves and thigh armour. gingerly tossed a stick onto Spiney's snout.

As the beast shifted its weight, I became exceedingly grateful that I didn't need to hold on by my own strength. The pterosaurs chose this time (to their misfortune), to dive at me. I don't know if they simply didn't notice Spiney, or if they hoped not to wake her. In either case, the first would-be attacker found itself snatched out of the air by the long toothy narrow jaws of my new pet.

It wasn't part of the plan for Spiney to get his meal this early, though, so the visor tricked her into snapping at a phantom pterosaur, thus dropping the bloodied attacker. The pterosaurs decided that my meager flesh wasn't worth the effort, and circled high above without diving, while their companion lay mutilated on the ground. Before Spiney could go back for the injured pterosaur, I caused the visor to hide it and also show her a limping Iguanadon just out of reach to the East. The easy prey was irresistible, and she started after it immediately. Of course, she didn't catch it.

Spinosaurs are not particularly graceful over land. Their gait is awkward. They move their opposing legs in synchronization, which was remarkably unimportant to me, until I was directly affected by the nauseating undulations of Spiney's back. Nevertheless they are remarkably fast even so. I found that I could push her to run for about 2 hours at a time, coaxing and prodding her with food and aggressive male Spinosaurs. Then she would have to rest for about half an hour. On average I was making about 16-20 km per hour. When I had woken up in that tree, I had over 360 km left to travel. I drove her farther than she would ever have naturally gone. When the images stopped being enough, I began injecting adrenaline into her system through my gloves. By the time Spiney passed out from exhaustion I had reached the foot of the mountain.

It was well into the morning, and I was starving and exhausted as well. I detached from her back and stretched my sore muscles. When I felt limber enough, I sauntered up to her throat, and lazily sliced it open. She was far too spent to fight. I was in the mood for meat, and as it happened, I had a great supply right there. I took a slice from her tail, cooked it and enjoyed it.

When my belly was full I wandered far from the carcass which had already been discovered by a few small scavengers, and I found another tree to sleep in. This time I was careful to check the tracker app to avoid wildlife. Tomorrow I would track a wizard.

Wednesday, 28 January 2015

Jikana Enka had quickly become friends with everyone she met during her time as a rebel. It was through these friendships that she was able to learn from a Dragon Rider a few things about the Dragons and Dinosaurs. Although she couldn't understand Dragonspeech, her time studying the telepathic Verimagus arts had given her enough skill to roughly communicate with a Dragon. With their hierarchical societal structure, Jikana knew she would need to speak directly Queen Sdrankhn. At this time in her life, Sdrankhn* was maintaining a 50m long body, with a 60m wingspan. She was intensely intimidating, though legend spoke of a time thousands of years ago when she maintained an even larger bulk. Her current lair had been dug out of a small island on Tor Mta Lake in the Pset'na mountain range so that she could remain close to all of the major Omnistate dome cities, yet sufficiently remote as to remain undetected.

Jikana didn't know where the entrance to her lair would be, so she found a resting place in the top of a tree near the edge of the island from which she could observe and search for any movement. She slowed her personal passage of time, so that she could quickly observe all the activity of a 25 hour period in 25 seconds. In such a sped up view, it became clear from the flights of many pterangels† that the entrance was in a deceptive crevice on a cliff face on the western side of the island.

Jikana then sped her flow of time, and jumped as hard as she could, propelling her body through the sloshing air and seemingly reduced gravity toward the cliff. Time shifted twice more, reducing her perception of the flight to a shorter time-span, and then allowing her to leisurely reach out to the cliff face to slow down and utilize her momentum by ascending toward the hidden entrance. She scrambled over the ledge hidden behind the crevice and quickly looked around. With time still flowing faster for her, she was able to avoid the attacks from the 2m tall Utahraptors, and make her way deeper into the lair. With there already being no light in the cave, the dimmed light of slow-paced time would have been far too little light to see by - which is why she carried flares. She ran along the cave floor, wall, and ceiling, uncertain which direction was up or down. The occasional wyrhm, pigon or guardian Dinosaur‡ were her only indications of true down. After exploring a few side chambers, she rounded one last blind curve and discovered her prize speaking to a small pterangel.

Right as the sound-waves from a guardian squawking an alert reached the room, Jikana knelt on a ledge just out of Sdrankhn's reach at her eye level, and began projecting her thoughts of peace and her identity as friend of the Dragon Riders. She returned to a normal flow of time and waited alert for the Queen's response.

Sdrankhn growled almost too deeply for human ears to perceive, and the alarm ceased. She dismissed the pterangel and turned her attention to the intruder. Jikana tensed. The queen sat on her hind legs and lazily folded her wings around them, tilting her head to the side in inquiry.

Jikana relaxed, and projected her thoughts as she said, "Please forgive the intrusion, Queen. I am a wizard of Unimagus, having studied directly under her highness, Hawkica. I have sworn to harm none, yet I have participated in the assassination of Kair. I am distressed by my participation, and wish to leave humanity for a time."

Sdrankhn nodded in acknowledgement that she understood. There is no corner of Poskaena which will likely remain untouched by your cousins for long. What would you have me do?
Jikana was completely surprised by her ability to understand, "If it pleases you, I would live on Drako."

You have sworn to harm none. Does this extend to my daughters and our slaves?
"Indeed. I will harm no multicellular organism with a nervous system. I eat only fruits, plants and fungus that I cultivate."

What if one of our slaves tries to eat you? Will you abandon your oath then, as you did with Kair?
Feeling pangs of guilt and a hint of anger which she quickly suppressed, Jikana replied, "Although I participated, I personally harmed none. Nevertheless I am more adamant tha-"

Suddenly an Eodromaeus leapt at Jikana's jugular with its sharp teeth flashing toward her death with lightning speed. Jikana reacted automatically, nearly stopping the flow of time compared to her perception. She grabbed the now harmless dinosaur gently by the ribcage, and allowed time to flow around the beast enough (though too slowly for it to react) as she gently guided its mass to the edge of the platform. She returned to her original spot and resumed regular time. The Eodromaeus slid unharmed off the edge and spun around as it grappled the drop-off skidding down the face of the rock to the floor below. Jikana resumed, "I am more adamant than ever that I will not harm a living creature."

Sdrankhn swiped her clawed wing at Jikana with speed that nearly broke the sound barrier. Jikana again reacted quickly enough to completely avoid harm, this time appearing in the same location moments after the negative air pressure subsided. I am convinced that you will survive without harming my daughters or our slaves. Do you have a preference for your temporary territory?

Jikana replied, "Indeed. I would like to live on the dark side of Mt. Drake."

The queen rose from her position, and made her way to the entrance while Jikana followed. Sdrankhn launched herself out from the cliff and circled around to land on the plateau above. Jikana leapt upward from the entrance and landed gracefully next to the queen. Sdrankhn gazed into the twilit sky above, I am unfamiliar with the names human astronomers grant the features of my planet. Which mountain would that be?

Jikana sought the mountain in the eastern edge of Drako, a mountain which was so tall that from Pskaena it appeared to be a deformation of the edge of the planet whose far side was never visible due to the tidal locking of the two planets. She pointed and mentally projected the image of the mountain.You have my permission to live on the Mountain of ----- (this part was unintelligible to Jikana, she assumed it must be a word without translation). Though I cannot provide transport. In addition, we will require a favour from you at some time in the future, before you perish. We will not expect you to betray any of your principles so long as you remain true to your oath.

"Thank you, most benevolent queen. I accept your terms. I will not be needing transportation. If it pleases you, I will be on my way."

Curious how the tiny mage would find her own transportation to the neighbouring planet, Sdrankhn nodded.

Jikana closed her eyes and concentrated. Sdrankhn stared at her for a few moments, until a stray noise momentarily caught her attention. She flicked her eyes in the direction of the noise, and by the time her eyes darted back, Jikana had disappeared. Sdrankhn tasted the air, and glanced all around, unable to determine any direction Jikana might have gone, and not sensing any disturbances of air flow like she had in the cave. On a whim, she looked upward with her extremely enhanced vision at the mountain Jikana had called Mt. Drake. At first she didn't see anything unusual, but a few seconds later she saw a tiny humanoid figure rounding the pinnacle of the mountain and descending onto the far side.

Sdrankhn spread her wings and glided back to the room in her lair where she had been, summoning the pterangel she had been speaking to, and then resumed her regular correspondences.

*Queen SDRAnKhn is the most powerful and skilled Dragon.
†Pterangels are pterodactyl-like creatures that Dragons use as messenger pigeons.
‡Wyrhms keep caves clear of organic decay, pigons consume wyrhms and are the primary source of protein for other Dragon Lair dwellers and guardian Dinosaurs are various carnivorous Dinosaurs whose sole role is to keep out intruders.

If there's one thing I was certain of in the early morning hours, it's that real lizards or dinosaurs don't have eight legs. They have four legs. Therefore, the thing I was seeing must be either an hallucination or a dream. It wasn't moving, so my groggy mind had time to process. Lets see. Two meters long and wide, tip to tip. Eight legs - one, two, three...., yes eight. Clawed tips. Eyes? Only two. No wait, four mini eyes in each socket, so that made eight. Wide jaw with single lower mandible, and two prominent narrow fangs. No spider abdomen, only a flat abdomen between its lower and upper two appendages and a short tail. No creature I had ever heard of matched this description. Very nightmarish. But if this was a nightmare, I would be panicking by now. Therefore this is real. Therefore I should panic.

I slept with my gun in my arms*, so I slowly angled the barrel at the centre of the... Spider lizard? Splizard? Lider? Ugly. I fired. The shot ripped through flesh, and Ugly squealed in irate shock as he leapt away from me toward the entrance, tangling itself in the web it must have spun the night before. Ugly tried to scramble at me, moving its limbs fast enough that if it hadn't been tangled, I wouldn't have stood a chance. Overcoming my shock that a heartshot didn't stop it sooner, or cause more bleeding, I fired between its eyes, and watched it slump, still twitching its legs.

Short fight. And I was very lucky. I started to realize just how lucky I was as I took stock of my surroundings. The entrance was completely webbed off, making escape impossible. There was a large worm-shaped cocoon of Ugly-silk where Ugly had been focusing his attention before I shot him. I thought it was an egg-sac until I cut it open with my bayonet and found a still-breathing paralyzed 8m python. I killed it so it couldn't cause any trouble. The silk was not easy to cut through. It was sticky, stretchy, gummy and tougher than tendon. After working on the entrance until I could leave, I took a closer look at Ugly. He was very flat. He could have been hiding deep inside a crevice in the cave and despite his size I wouldn't have noticed. Caves were not safe. Out of curiosity I ran a tracker algorithm on the image of the ground in the cave and around the entrance currently compared to the night before.

As the reconstruction played, I saw Ugly arrive at the cave just as I was nodding off to sleep. The image sped up as he worked on the web to cover the entrance for over 2 hours and highlighted when the snake snuck past him, heading for my juicy sleeping body. Ugly must have noticed, because he stopped his construction long enough to paralyze the snake, and wrap him in silk. After Ugly finished sealing the entrance, he began snacking on the snake. I only slept for about 4 hours. If I had slept longer, I would have been wrapped up as well. If the snake hadn't shown up, I would have been dead. If Ugly hadn't shown up, I would have been dead. If Ugly wasn't a glutton, I would have been dead. The fates on Drako offer no forgiveness.

"Nothing you couldn't handle? Your best defence against the night-stalking predators of this planet is to hide in a cave, and now as far as you know there are no safe caves. You'll have to risk sleeping out in the open for the next 7 nights in order to make it to Mt Drake."

"I have the Triple S tent. I'll be fine."

"Do you know how many combatants have died in their 3S tents? Plus, don't you think the crew members back at the base would like to know about this new threat?"

"They have their dome, and the other guardians. They're safe enough."

"And you're still convinced you can save our parents, so you won't even think about helping the people who you know could use your help?"

"Exactly."

He went silent, so I reran the route finding algorithm negating the search for caves etc, favouring locales that would be away from common game trails. The new route shaved an extra 6 hours off the total journey time, so I set out right away. I saw the dead volcano, Mt. Drake peaking up from below the horizon, and I still had over 60km to travel today to make good time. I sent a dragonfly bot to scout the route ahead for wildlife. I didn't want to accidentally run into another carnotaurus. Or, frankly, anything else for that matter.

The rest of the day was quiet. My brother must have been in a mood, he didn't even try to talk to me. I made good time, and only stopped to eat when I came across a fruit-tree that tested good-to-eat. It must've had caffein in it, since for the first time since I landed I stopped craving coffee. As the suns dipped below the horizon, and the daytime lit up my homeworld, Pskaena I gazed into the sky. The Spiral continent in the southwest was awe inspiring. From the ground they were boring, monotonous swampy tracts of land between salt-marshes. From Drako they were like the first moments of the swirling pattern of milk being mixed into black coffee. I could just make out the islands of my ancestral home, Gaeli in the Northwest. I felt like the wolves of Gobland, and I wanted to howl in yearning anticipation for my homeland and the love of my family. But my desire to avoid attracting the attention of every hungry nocturnal predator for miles around quelled the thought.

I found a tall tree and began my climb toward a safe place near the top. A notification alert started bleeping in my peripheral vision, but I figured it was just my brother texting me, so I ignored it and silenced the alert. When I reached 45m up, I figured I was high enough, and I set up my 3S tent on a particularly thick branch.

My mornings were very unlucky. Perhaps it was the lack of caffeine. Perhaps the fates of Drako were grumpy that the fates of Pskaena could have coffee and they couldn't. Perhaps I should have checked the alert instead of silencing it. I might have chosen a different tree. In case you are wondering, the alert had been from my tracker app. It was warning me that a large opportunistic predator had made its bed on top of the jumbled roots of this tree. The nearby river was its primary hunting ground, but the gnawed Iguanadon bones hidden in the roots indicated that it would eat any prey dumb enough to chance by. I would probably fit its dietary criteria.

When I awoke and got out of my tent, I looked down on a 15m long heavily muscled alligator-like dinosaur. This was one of the largest species - a Spinosaurus.